By Doh James Sonkey
A workshop took place last June 6, 2024 at the Yaounde Djeuga Palace Hotel on a draft report of a National Survey on the right to access information in Cameroon. Organised by the Network for Solidarity, Empowerment and Transformation for all, NewSETA, the workshop was opened by the Executive Director, Ateki Seta Caxton who said “a total of 382 people responded to the survey.”
The meeting was aimed at validating a survey carried out on the right to access information in Cameroon.
The Executive Director of NewSETA, Ateki Seta Caxton declared that “the right to access information in Cameroon is untidy (problematic) but that does not mean that access to information in Cameroon is 0%.”
NewSETA’s project was based on “improving access to information in Cameroon through research, advocacy and legal reforms” and the project benefitted from the financial support of the Commonwealth Foundation.
87% of the respondents said lack of information on certain institutions, persons etc create fake news while 88% said Cameroon needs the access to information law.
Government’s failure to provide information is common, Cameroon’s RTI landscape is untidy and stakeholders recommend adopting new unique law.
A panel discussion took place and was animated by the Director of Media Observatory and Public Opinion at the Ministry of Communication, Denis Omgba, Country Director Media and Democracy, Sah Terence, photo journalist, Comfort Mussa and it was moderated by Prince Mundi Tanda of Vision4.
The workshop permitted participants drawn from the media landscape, the civil society and NGOs to share their experiences and get their inputs into the process. They gave their ideas that reflected diverse views of different actors on the field who are really on a frontline basis as actors accessing information, requesting information from government and facing all sorts of challenges that cannot be enumerated now.
Talking to reporters, Ateki Seta Caxton explained that “today’s workshop was really of essence to share findings from the National Survey that we did on the right to access information in Cameroon. The idea is to be able to inform our advocacy on the adoption of a new law in Cameroon on the right to access information. So, it is important that we inform policies in the experiences of typical users like journalists who are on the forefront of information search on daily basis and to understand your experiences so that when a law is being developed, it responds to our own realities and experiences that we are going through every day.”
He announced that “NewSETA is planning to organise another workshop by July or August 2024 to present the final report to parliamentarians, journalists, civil society organisations etc.”